SCHENECTADY -- The SUNY Schenectady women's basketball program will not field a team this season because of a lack of players.

The school posted an announcement this week, and athletic director Dave Gonzalez said SUNY Schenectady will strive to put a team on the floor for the 2020-21 season.

While some area junior colleges are scheduled to open their 2019-20 seasons this weekend, the Royals were supposed to begin on Nov. 5 at Tompkins Cortland C.C.

The Royals had a full month of workouts in September, with 4-8 players showing up on a regular basis, Gonzalez said.

Oct. 1 was the first official day of practice, but by then the numbers had dwindled to a point where the school had to consider canceling the season.

"We had between four to eight girls coming out, so we felt pretty confident, and then when tryouts started on October 1st, we were only getting four of them to come out," Gonzalez said. "We ran tryouts for four days, but it turns out some of them took part-time jobs and had other commitments, so we only had four girls by the end of the week.

"At this point, we had to go forward one way or another and make a decision, because we had opponents and everyone else that needs to know. We'll go forward recruiting and doing everything we can to put a team on the floor for next season."

The SUNY Schenectady women's team had just hired a new head coach, Jahmel Samuels, in early September.